PD: Man intimidated young girls at bus stop

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A Newport News man has been charged after police say he intimidated young girls at a bus stop.

On Thursday, two elementary school students reported a man had approached them twice in the Regency Square Apartments neighborhood on Jefferson Avenue, according to Harold Eley with the Newport News Police Department.

The 9-year-old girl and 11-year-old girl said the man first approached them on April 20, that he was staring at them and said he was going to shoot them with a gun. They said the man approached them a second time on Thursday around 8:30 a.m. at the bus stop near the apartment complex, and indicated he was going to shoot them and have sex with them.

“He was like looking at our butt and everything, and we thought like something was going to happen to us,” said the 11-year-old girl, who asked not to be identified. “So when we got to school, we told it straight away to the principal.”

WALKER, VANDARREN (Photo by NNPD)

Both girls said the suspect had a Wal-Mart bag with him with something sharp poking out of it, which he pointed at the girls, but never made any physical contact, Eley said.

Eley said the girls took the man’s statements seriously and told the bus driver, who told them how to report the incident to school officials.

Police learned the man had been seen in the area of the Pinedale Manor Apartments, which are near the Regency Square Apartment complex. Each time he was seen on foot and sometimes observed walking with a short black female, Eley said.

Police developed an action plan on Thursday, and at about 8:30 a.m. Friday located the man hanging around the bus stop. He was detained and interviewed at police headquarters.

Police also interviewed a third juvenile on Friday, an 11-year-old Newport News girl, who was also present at the same bus stop on Thursday, Eley said.

At about 2:25 p.m. Friday, police arrested 56-year-old Vandarren Walker of the 600 block of Dresden Drive and charged him with three counts of stalking and two counts of assault. Walker is being held without bond.

“I was just happy that it’s over with,” said the mother of the 10-year-old victim. “Because they don’t need to go through that. They are little girls.”